The Australian new vehicle market grew again in May, up 3.6 per cent year-on-year with 96,672 sales, and thereby stayed on all-time record pace. However, with private sales going backwards, it was larger-scale business and fleet sales that kept things flying.

Familiar patterns remained largely that in May. Passenger car sales sank and SUVs were up across the board (nabbing 37.5 per cent market share, to passenger cars’ 39.5), while vans and utes grew more than 10 per cent, and took 20 per cent market share when combined.

Summary

The Hyundai i30 small car was the top-selling vehicle for the third month in succession on the back of continued strong factory deals, ahead of the Toyota HiLux and Corolla, Mazda 3 and Ford Ranger.

Amazingly, the trusty HiLux is now the nation’s top-selling vehicle for the year with 16,558 units January-May, ahead of the i30 on 16,425. The Hyundai has relegated the the Corolla (16,117) and the Mazda 3 (15,976) to third and fourth respectively YTD.

As has become a pattern, every state and territory grew its sales (the biggest volume growth came from NSW and Victoria, the best percentage growth from SA) with the exception of WA, which dropped a further 5 per cent as its mining boom dies off.

The five most popular vehicle segments by volume in May were Small Cars (18.6 per cent market share and showing welcome growth), Medium SUVs (14.4), 4×4 utes (13.1), Large SUVs (12.2) and Small SUVs (9.5).

Interestingly, the strongest proportional growth came from Upper Large SUVs and people-movers, up 28.6 per cent and 27.8 per cent respectively. Micro Cars (down 23.9 per cent), Light Cars (down 27.7 per cent) and Upper Large Cars (down 31.6 per cent) struggled.

Top brands May 2016

Perennial leader Toyota did well to grow 8 per cent — double the total market average — to 17,201 units. It beat out Mazda (9608, up 10.2 per cent), Hyundai (9005, up 8.9 per cent), Holden (7405, down 6.9 per cent) and Ford (6584, up 9.8 per cent).

The next tier were Mitsubishi (6154, steady), Nissan (5585, up 25 per cent), Volkswagen (4565, down a worrying 17.5 per cent, partially attributable to the lack of Tiguan stock as the new one nears), Subaru (4002, up 6 per cent) and Kia (3542, up a healthy 26 per cent).

Knocking on the door as always was Mercedes-Benz with 3373, up 22.5 per cent, enough to keep it in the top 10 YTD. Honda underperformed again with 2663 (down 13.7 per cent), with BMW (2565, up 7.8 per cent), Audi (2002, up 3.6 per cent), Isuzu Ute (1883, up 11.1 per cent) and Suzuki (1712,down 1.2 per cent) close.

Other smaller-volume brands that performed well were (alphabetically): Fiat Professional (109, up 25.3 per cent), Infiniti (56, up 30.2 per cent), Jaguar (176, up 188.5 per cent), Land Rover (990, up 19 per cent and ahead of Jeep in volume), LDV (139, 321.2 per cent) and Volvo Car (490, up 39.2 per cent).

At the top end, a few supercar and ultra luxury brands also did well, led by Lamborghini (21, tripling sales year-on-year) and McLaren (11, up 120 per cent).

Big losers beyond those mentioned up the page were: Alfa Romeo (52, down 57.4 per cent), Chrysler (30, down 61 per cent), Citroen (90, down 12.6 per cent), Dodge (38, down 66.4 per cent) and Fiat (175, down 54.1 per cent).

Other strugglers were Foton Light (68, down 34 per cent), Jeep (975, down 54.1 per cent), Peugeot (234, down 23.3 per cent), Renault (779, down 29.5 per cent as Megane/Koleos stocks dwindle) and SsangYong (38, down 66.1 per cent).

Sales dropped 4.1 per cent across the private sector to 47,424 units, meaning it was actually business fleets (38,611, up 13.5 per cent). Government sales were 3807 (up 2.1 per cent) and rentals accounted for 3983, up 16.8 per cent.

Diesel-powered passenger vehicles tumbled a further 22 per cent to 1687 units, representing about 4 per cent of the overall passenger total. Hybrid cars also struggled to sell to private buyers, down 12.5 per cent (passenger) and 39.6 per cent (SUV) respectively.

Our main sources of vehicles were: Japan (27,367, up 2.1 per cent), Thailand (23,064, up 14.8 per cent), Korea (13,585, up 29.1 per cent), Germany (7337, down 2.9 per cent) and USA (4220, down 14 per cent). Australian-made cars accounted for 6647 units, down 6.9 per cent.